|
Share this
Twitter
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Yahoo
Blogmarks
Technorati
Googlize this
Blinklist
Facebook
Wikio
Hear this text
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
Tags
The
Sikh revolt (the Khalsa founded in 1699) fed directly upon peasant unrest of the earlier Jats of Agra and of the Satnami
Chamar rebellions of Narnaul. Banda Singh Bahadur was baptised a Sikh and appointed the commander-in-chief of the Sikh army by the Tenth
Guru of the Sikhs Gobind Singh himself.
Contrary to what is usually taught in the Panjabi history books Banda was not born a prince. According to William Pinch in a draft :
the Vaishnava commander Madhodas (who became famous as "Banda Bahadur," the leader of the Sikh resistance against the Mughals after the death of Gobind Singh) was the son of a poor Kashmiri Rajput ploughman1.
Banda had his own following even before he met Guru Gobind Singh. In earlier times Jats predominated in Guru Gobind Singh's army but Banda's army's had many 'lower castes' such as cobblers, tanners, sweepers, blacksmiths etc.
Jagjit Singh in the Sikh Revolution (page 124) quotes a contemporary historian to the effect
Irfan Habib quotes Warid (page 248) to the effect
Banda, the chief of the Sikhs had established a rule that whoever...became Sikhs, should all eat together; and differences between the menial and the respectable having disappeared, they untied together as one. The lowest sweeper and the raja of high status sharing water and food, did not harbour any hostility to each other.
. ..More wonderful still, the courage and daring of the inhabitants of those regions was so much lost owing to God's decree : the lowliest sweeper or tanner - filthier than whom there is no race in Hindustan - betaking himself to attend upon that accursed one [Banda], was appointed [by him] to the government of his own city, and when returning after obtaining his deed of appointment, he reached the locality, or city or village, that moment all the respectable and leading men went to receive him, and after his alighting, stood with folded hands before him3.
The caste system had disappeared from Banda Singh Bahadur's domain.
Caste system reappeared in the Punjab after the betrayal of Banda by other Sikhs who wanted to retain the existing caste/feudal status quo to continue for their own selfish ends. Ranjit Singh's land revenue system was a continuation of the earlier Mogul system. Nevertheless Banda's was the only recorded time in the history of India when there are clear indicators of the destruction of the hated caste society.
Despite the fact that Jat Sikhs became and reamain the major dominant caste in the Panjab countryside and thus form an oppressor community; the love of Dalits for historical Sikhism remains unbound. This is explored by Raj Kumar Hans in his paper Dalits and the Emancipatory Sikh Religion.
Main Sources:
1. http://www.virginia.edu/soasia/symsem/kisan/papers/sadhus.html - Although this paper is stated to be an extremely rough draft, it is unlikely that the author who is a specialist in his chosen subject, would provide an incorrect reference. The reference provided by Professor William R. Finch is: On Banda's early career W. Irvine (Later Mughals, i, 93) cites Major James Browne. India Tracts (London, 1788; 4 vols., a translation of a Persian ms. written by two Hindus at Browne's request), 9; E. Thornton, Gazetteer of the Territories under the East India Company, 788; and Gyan Singh (Gyani) and Babu Rai Indar Singh, Shamsher-i-Khalsa (Urdu, Sialkot. 1891 Lithograph, 4 vols.), 183.
2. The Sikh Revolution by Jagjit Singh, Kendri Singh Sabha 1984.
3. Essays in indian History by Irfan Habib, Tulika Publishers, 1998.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
